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Editable Codex talk:Noun Lexicon
See Forum:Need_policy_on_capitalization_of_races_(and_I_guess_other_things) for the advent of this article. I've decided to create this article, and just use this talk page to work out what should go in it. Like the main article, entries will be alphabetically ordered level 3 headings. I fear that there won't be a lot of input over these nouns, and the end result will be me making arbitrary decisions about what's common and what's proper. As horrid as that sounds, I think it's more important to be consistent, than it is to be perfectly correct. Besides, the more mistakes I make, the more outrage I'll cause, and the more interest I'll generate. I should like to point out that many things that are proper nouns can also be common nouns. For instance, a Knight of the Garter can be called a "Knight" for short. Being a Knight, he is also a knight. That's a bit confusing, and as a rule of thumb I avoid it, but it's not improper. (Perhaps that very paragraph should be place in the article) AngusM 16:41, June 15, 2010 (UTC) Research It's a good idea to just get a background on the criteria used to determine whether a noun is proper or common: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun#Proper_nouns_and_common_nouns. AngusM 16:50, June 15, 2010 (UTC) Candidate words "Avatarhood" I'll bet the "-hood" suffix commonizes any proper noun. I'll look into this, and probably make a decision at that point. AngusM 17:23, June 15, 2010 (UTC) :Only depending on how it's applied, I think. The definition is as follows: :A native English suffix denoting state, condition, character, nature, etc., '''or' a body of persons of a particular character or class.'' :Specifically, the former is all that applies here and in that case I don't see any reason to believe it contradicts the capitalization of the word. If it were used to refer to a group as opposed to the state of the individual known uniquely as the Avatar, you'd definitely have a point. I say keep it capitalized. (I hope it's okay to contribute discussion here) --Terilem 05:41, June 16, 2010 (UTC) ::This is exactly where you contribute. ::If that's true, then when "God" (the theistic one) is suffixed w/"-hood", shouldn't the properness stay? A quick Google for "godhood" reveals only common nouns, including those appearing in a monotheistic context, and on credible sites. AngusM 05:58, June 16, 2010 (UTC) :::Good point, but on that note, what about Christhood? --Terilem 06:45, June 16, 2010 (UTC) ::::Hmm... looks like whatever we do won't be completely right, but it'll be difficult to say it's at all wrong. Perhaps at this point, the least incorrect way would be to go back to what Origin says about this, if we find consistency. Crikey, that means going through all the documentation again! Terilem has already found a proper noun instance in the SI manual. Is there a single place that links all the Ultima documentation PDFs? AngusM 17:29, June 16, 2010 (UTC) :::::Don't worry! :) I found two instances in the "Virtues" chapter of the U5 manual, one in the U6 in-game books and another in the U7 Usecode: all capitalized. There are text files of all the Ultima manuals here and I cross-checked with the hard copies just to make sure. --Terilem 23:30, June 16, 2010 (UTC) ::::::Oh yeah, well check this out. ::::::Perhaps we should set another policy: if manuals and game texts are perfectly consistent on a word, it gets added to the lexicon w/out debate. Maybe we'd want to tack on a "and used frequently enough". AngusM 03:26, June 17, 2010 (UTC) Shrines I think this should be linked to Virtues. Since I'm used to seeing "Shrine of Compassion" and never "shrine of Compassion", I feel that this should be proper. AngusM 03:04, June 12, 2010 (UTC) :I agree with this and the Virtues issues as well. --Terilem 23:42, June 16, 2010 (UTC) "Shrines" I see this the same way I see Shrines. AngusM 03:04, June 12, 2010 (UTC) Ultima II items Off-hand I don't remember all the items, so maybe some are proper and others aren't. An issue of contention is Talk:Force_Field_Ring. AngusM 22:26, June 9, 2010 (UTC) Virtues This is a pretty special set of words which have meaning and specifications as separate from out-world virtues. Also, Origin documentation is pretty consistent about this (probably perfectly consistent), so these should be proper. AngusM 22:26, June 9, 2010 (UTC) "Virtues" I apply the same criteria here as for Virtues. AngusM 22:26, June 9, 2010 (UTC)